On 11 March 2020, our lives changed radically. That was the day the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that a new type of virus had caused a pandemic.
Do you also feel that you have been living in a more or less surreal world ever since? If you look back a year, the first days of the pandemic seem almost innocent, because nobody really knew anything about the virus. Wearing masks was still considered superfluous (RKI President Wieler), it was said that the virus was probably not much more dangerous than a flu virus (which some still claim).
By now, not only the virus, but all of us have mutated into virologists. We rattle up and down incidence rates, we discuss vaccines, we have learned the R-value and we have all internalised the AHA + L rules.
Tens of thousands of articles and studies on the second Sars virus have been published, many of them of dubious scientific value. Can they answer the fundamental questions we all have? Or are coordinated and planned studies not rather necessary so that we finally learn so much about the virus that at least the severe diseases are treatable including the long-term effects (Long Covid) and no one has to die from Covid-19 anymore?
Our politicians, who at least admitted in the beginning that they had no idea, are increasingly seen as enemy images. So many blunders cannot be made as they are made. In any case, the whole handling of the virus shows us our weakness of action. Of course, Europe cannot be compared to Australia and certainly not to China with their rigid measures, but consistency – this should be a lesson for us in any case – must also be producible in democracies. The undignified spectacle of the petty muckraking of prime ministers, the powerlessness of the federal government, the courting of voters with dubious compromises – all this is deeply unsettling and destabilises confidence in the ability of our democracies to deal with existential crises.
If we imagine for a moment that we are at war (because we are at war without considering the situation as such), then everyone would just shake their heads at the movement of the enemy, when a bunch of startled chickens spend hours discussing whether they should fight back or whether they can still go swimming or fly to Majorca? This is so irrational that it relentlessly exposes the weaknesses of our system. And just as this sentence is being written, the German chancellor is saying the same thing, after all. In war, it is difficult to discuss; first and foremost, clear action must be taken. Afterwards, one can see whether the actions were right or wrong. But if we always assumed the worst case, the situation would look different.
In the 1960s, we demonstrated against the emergency laws because we feared that they would be used against striking workers. Today, when we are dealing with a real state of emergency that requires a clear concentration of power by the government, no one has yet come up with the idea of declaring a state of emergency (in the current power relations it is almost impossible to declare a state of emergency!). This may sound too radical to many, but war radicalises. The possibility of changing the infection control law to be able to determine more centrally is now being considered. Doesn’t that come much too late? Discussions that are interest-driven and not problem-focused are no way to deal with the virus.
Science can discuss the situation and its evaluation, there are many different opinions because there are still many unsolved mysteries concerning the virus. That is even its task, because only through discourse can one arrive at greater truth. Politics can’t really do that, it has to start from the worst threat. It must not lure itself or us as citizens with false hopes. Winston Churchill also promised his citizens only blood, sweat and tears in the war of that time.
And this is the situation we are in. There are many different possibilities for how we will experience the next year and many more. Which imponderables do we have to take into account?
- The virus could simply disappear again. That would be our best option. This is what happened during the influenza pandemic at the beginning of the last century. After three years, the spook was over. The MERS virus was also quickly pushed back because it was not as contagious.
- The virus mutates into a variant that loses its dangerousness. If it really is no more dangerous than flu, we can live with it. Or we have to re-evaluate influenza, because it too can cause up to 30,000 deaths a year. But the current virus is more dangerous than flu, that seems certain.
- So far, the virus mutates in two directions: It is easier to contract and the course of the disease is more severe than with the wild type.
- What happens if the existing vaccines no longer cover new mutants? That could be unpleasant for us if they can spread widely. Let’s hope that annual vaccinations will not become necessary then.
- The virus becomes endemic. It weakens its threat, but it simply persists like the annual flu viruses.
- Or we build up defences through vaccination that enable us to cope better with new variants. Then probably only the risk groups would need to be vaccinated.
The EU, especially Ursula von der Leyen, has not covered herself with glory in the joint vaccine order. There may be many plausible reasons for this disaster: What is clear is that it will cost us another six months to a year in pandemic mode, as well as more dead and long covid sick. The vaccine manufacturers are thumbing their noses at us, we seem to have no effective leverage in the EU. Why?
AstraZeneca has manoeuvred itself completely into the sidelines through its miserable communication policy. Whether the vaccine is good or bad is no longer the issue for them. Anyone who communicates so badly, arrogantly and incompetently is not trustworthy.
Many of us are dependent on the normal economy functioning again, the groups particularly affected are known to you all. This is only possible when we have achieved a high degree of vaccination.
Another disaster was the tracking app. Germany didn’t exactly excel there. The fact that a musician like Smudo, with the app he pushed, Luca, achieves more with a small innovative team than the giants of our industry is more than shameful. Data protection aside, if I myself agree to my data being used, then a lot would be changed if this permission were used for more normality.
Our health care system shows quite ruthlessly what is wrong with us: In recent years, we have only relied on technology, which has pleased the industry. Staffing has been cut, which is why the intensive care units are totally overloaded, doctors, nurses and everyone else have been working at the top of their lungs for months. Here, too, we need to rethink our health policy. Economic efficiency cannot be the only criterion.
And ourselves? Are you also disillusioned with the state in which we present ourselves? How could we allow ourselves to become so divided in the face of a real threat? Many, most of us have probably understood that the enemy – the virus – must be taken seriously. But full ski slopes in the Sauerland, the run on airline tickets to Mallorca, carelessness and recklessness in everyday life, new reports about parties every day – all this shows a divided country. We are no longer that far away from the USA.
We have diversity of opinion here, and that’s a good thing. But does that mean that everyone can do whatever they want here? Even if I were of the opinion that the virus is quite harmless – does that automatically mean that I no longer have to comply with the general requirements? That’s schizophrenic, living together like that can’t work.
After this year with Corona, our society shows itself in a disastrous state, much worse than imagined in the worst nightmares. It makes you depressed, much more than the lockdowns.
We can and now we have to learn a lot about our society, because it is sick. We have to seriously ask ourselves what our living together should look like in the future – perhaps the lockdown would be the right opportunity to do so? A policy that for years has made almost only the interests of industry, of international corporations, the compass of its actions, has the responsibility for this. All of us who know this and yet have done nothing about it also bear responsibility. Many dissatisfied people have got involved with the right-wing parties (AFD) – this is understandable, but completely out of touch with their own interests. It’s totally sick, because people are retreating into the whining corner. To cope with this, we need much more than complaining.
Actually, we need a new dream of how Germany, how Europe, how the world should look in the future, how we want to live. This will only be possible if we no longer ignore the problems and all of us – no matter which party – set out on the path after relentless analysis, because stagnation as in the past decades is no longer possible. Thank you, Corona, for this insight.